Every year with the release of a new entry into EA Sport’s FIFA franchise people football-fans the world over will be extremely excited at the prospect of a new batch of FIFA-ratings being released. These ratings – which in theory reflect a given player’s performance in the preceding season – should give an indication of who the finest players in the world are. For the most part the guys over at EA Sports do a stellar job in the ratings they give.

Part of the nature of football – and subsequently FIFA – is that everybody will have their favourites. There will never be unanimous support for the player ratings given out by EA. Ronaldo’s devout supporters will belly-ache about how he should be Messi’s equal (or more,) Neymar nuts will moan about why he isn’t faster than Theo Walcott and trolls will argue that Emile Heskey should have a rating of 93. It’s impossible to please everyone…The top 10 ratings for FIFA 14 which – as you’d expect were themselves hotly debated – were as follows:

01. Lionel Messi 94
02. Cristiano Ronaldo 92
03. Franck Ribéry 90
04. Falcao 90
05. Andres Iniesta 89
06. Robin van Persie 89
07. Xavi 89
08. Zlatan Ibrahimovi? 89
09. Arjen Robben 88
10. Bastian Schweinsteiger 88

Several on these players no longer find themselves on WhatCulture’s projected top-10 for FIFA 15. This isn’t because EA necessarily got it wrong – this is simply because the player’s 2013/14 hasn’t been as excellent as their 2012/13. Likewise, several players have been bumped up from more humble positions to occupy the top 10, reflecting that they’ve just had an excellent season.